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What You Need to Know About North Carolina for September 9, 2015

Hello folks. Good bit of news today, so let’s get right to it. Don’t forget to push the orange button above if you want to listen to the news instead of read it.

Don’t forget to comment on the Greensboro BikePed plan. I worked on this plan personally and I hope those of you who live in or work in Greensboro will let the city leaders and staffers know what you really think of it. Also, same deal with the Durham-Chapel Hill light rail plan, only my friend worked on it and she and her staff have worked very hard to make it incorporate as much of the community concerns and needs as possible. Government leaders and staffers do pay attention to these plans! This is one more great way to make a difference in your community.

Meanwhile, a person you could vote for, who’s been filling up stadiums all over the nation, will probably do the same thing when he comes to Greensboro on Sunday. I’ll let you guess which presidential candidate that could be.

In case you were wondering what the best NC barbecue was, this Durham spot has been named the best in the latest assessment of such things.

My alma mater, this time, my first one,  N.C. State University, is helping out five North Carolina cities, including my hometown,Greensboro,  to increase entrepreneurship, especially in vocational and manufacturing trades. In addition to studying the cities, officials from each of the five cities will meet with each other on a regular basis to determine how they can support the economy in each community.

A few of the Greensboro City Council members are not happy with the new committee structure they started at the beginning of the month. Like its neighbor Winston-Salem, Greensboro hopes to use the committee structure, which has different configurations of the 9 council members meeting for work sessions on individual issues, to come into council meetings having made many decisions in advance, allowing them to proceed at a faster pace through the normal agenda. Committee meetings are open to the public.

Even though the Guilford County Schools broke graduation rate records, their test scores are still cause for concern and in the case of last night’s school board meeting, heated discussion. Also in school news, Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s schools are still 80 teachers short.

Three small Western North Carolina towns are getting free high-speed internet.

You could also move to Salisbury and have city-wide 10 gigabit internet service, thanks to that city’s  internet utility.

Asheville could be closer to a cat-cuddling cafe, much like the ones hoping up in larger cities internationally.

The state has broken ground on its new $15 million western crime lab.

The site of a popular community market and food truck hub in Charlotte will be replaced by an office building.

At a national conference on economic development in DC, Governor McCrory expressed his ideas on what he thinks the federal government is holding back from North Carolina.

The new state film incentives program will get $30 million in the biennial budget for grants to film activities, which are now given on a first come-first serve basis. Also, in case you weren’t aware biennial means two years. The budget we approve now and not just for film, but all aspects, will be something we are locked into for at least two years, if not more if the General Assembly then behaves much as the General Assembly does now.

And finally, the alignment of N.C. 540 in Wake County known as the Orange Route, has the approval of the surrounding communities and the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

Stay informed about North Carolina! Get this and other great facts and news about North Carolina in your inbox every weekday by clicking here. Or, you can listen to this and previous episodes of our podcast edition here.

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What You Need to Know About North Carolina for September 8, 2015

Welcome back friends! Or should you be saying that to me. Who knows. Anyway, in case you missed it last week, I am now doing an audio version of this email/blog. Click above to get to that link and play me while you are whipping up breakfast, getting your daily run in and the like.

I hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend. Before I get to the news links, I want to highlight the image I’ve chosen for the week. In the past, I’ve tried to change imagery every day, but I’d like to start highlighting one image a week, some from my personal collection, others from the great public domain and Creative Commons archives. Just like everything else we post here, there will be a story behind it.

Today’s story is that I, Kristen,  love patterns. Even better, when said patterns are things I encounter in my everyday life. The pattern shown above is the interior of the railroad tunnel that connects the two sides of UNC-Greensboro (Alma mater #2!) and also the Glenwood neighborhood, where I have many friends and spent some of my best elementary school years. I invite you to share a pattern in nature or architecture that you feel speaks to daily life. It doesn’t have to be in North Carolina, but if it is, I could feature it in a future week’s round up, with your explanation of why you like it. Reply back to the email with that photo or a link to it or leave it in the blog comments or include a link to it in the audio comments on SoundCloud. Without further ado, your news for September 8, 2015:

The latest wrinkle in the development of the Guilford and Randolph County megasite is a cell phone tower. Two of them to be exact. Cell companies often sign complicated leases to landowners for the ability to use the land and when not just a cell company, but people hoping to make your land the next big car manufacturing thing, it could be hard to compete.

Get ready to travel to the N.C. mountains this fall. Dr. Kathy Mathews, a biology professor at Western Carolina University who specializes in plant systematics, has released her annual fall foliage report. She predicts the best scenery in recent years in her report this year.

Dowd YMCA in Charlotte will remove a stone carving of the Confederate flag on its property.

If you aren’t a resident of Fayetteville and want to use some of its parks and recreation services, you may be required to pay for that privilege soon. At the same Fayetteville City Council meeting a discussion was held on changing city council terms and how members are elected.

And finally, as an attempt to help the state’s honeybee population thrive as more things such as mites and disease threaten to kill it off, you’ll start to see more sunflowers and canola plants in the roadside wildflower plantings cultivated by the state DOT.

Stay informed about North Carolina! Get this and other great facts and news about North Carolina in your inbox every weekday by clicking here. Or, you can listen to this and previous episodes of our podcast edition here.

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What You Need to Know About North Carolina for September 3, 2015

Hello folks! This again is What You Need to Know About North Carolina. What we try to do here is to grab headlines from papers across the state so that you don’t have to. Also, we try to highlight things that don’t necessarily jump out you as a big deal, but end up being a big deal later, such as real estate changes, new roads and bridges and state government changes. Ok, maybe that last one’s already hitting you hard. We try to make sure it doesn’t hit you harder.

Now that I’m doing audio via Soundcloud and reaching a few different folks, I try to introduce myself more. I’m Kristen. You can find out more about me here and what this whole project’s about and why I do what I do.

But, enough about me and what we are doing here. Thanks to all my loyal folks who have listened and read for nearly a year and a half. Thanks for being patient with me through holidays and technical difficulties. And now, what you are here for, then news:

I really like this program that Alamance County has created for its students. Seven major employers, the Alamance County Chamber of Commerce, Alamance-Burlington Schools and Alamance Community College have created a career accelerator, that starts with high school juniors and ends with students receiving a journeyman certificate from the North Carolina Department of Commerce, a college degree and a guaranteed job. Alamance County is in between the Triad and Triangle areas, but still is considered rural and has been struggling with unemployment and a change in the economy over the past few years.

If you were curious about what mental health resources are available to inmates at the Guilford County jail, you don’t have to be anymore. Inmates are screened at intake to the jail, as well as given needed medications. They are not kept in separate facilities from the general jail population though.

Also in Guilford County, 89% of the students in the class of 2015 actually graduated high school, which is the highest percentage in the state. Yes, better than Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Wake County, the two largest and most well funded systems. And of course, this number is higher than the state average as well. Still, Guilford County students are struggling with their state test proficiency. In Guilford County higher education news, UNC-Greensboro has a over 19,000 enrolled students this fall, making it the fifth-largest university in the UNC system, with N.C. State University, UNC Chapel Hill, East Carolina University and UNC Charlotte rounding out the top five.

The Charlotte resident who scaled a flagpole at the South Carolina state capitol and took down the Confederate flag, talks about what that experience was like and why she did it.

Some anti-immigrant signs have shown up around Buncombe County schools and parents are not happy. A forum was held recently to discuss their appearance and what can be done about them.

The Charlotte mayoral candidates had another debate last night. In addition to stating all of their visions for the city, some conversation was heated over the streetcar. Also discussed: corporate incentives and marijuana.

One day I’ll stop talking about Belk. But today is not that day. The Charlotte Observer has several major ways that the Belk family has shaped life in Charlotte. You can thank them for a larger airport, UNC Charlotte, SouthPark Mall (yes, the whole thing, not just their store there) and your hospitals. They’ve also given money to pretty much every other Charlotte area school and of course, their name is on roads, theaters and football games. And they convinced a lot of those other major companies to move to Charlotte too.

If you are listening, you can’t see this, but if you are reading this, stop and click on this cute picture of an old Wilmington Dairy Queen. I worked at a Dairy Queen ten years ago. It was not this cute on the outside.

The Wilmington Star-News has compiled a sizable list of North Carolina’s alcohol drinking habits. You’ll learn that there is still one truly dry county in North Carolina, most liquor is still sold in bigger cities and that one county has 8 separate ABC boards. Yes, 8.

Lee County doesn’t want to be the trash can for coal ash and it continues to reiterate that point to Duke Energy.

A federal lawsuit has been filed against the N.C. Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem and Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte over Medicare reimbursements. The only plaintiff right now is a Winston-Salem lawyer who used to work for N.C. Baptist. The U.S. Justice Department has declined to be part of the lawsuit and the hospitals insist that they’ve settled some of the concerns of the lawsuit.

Two men who were wrongly imprisoned at the state’s Central Prison for a number of years, have now received a financial settlement for their hardship.

Not taking a break for Labor Day, our state legislators. They still have a budget to give us and so they’ll be working on the weekend.

And finally, Cackalacky is our word. Seriously. Slate Magazine has compiled an interactive map of each state and a word that’s unique to each state. Unfortunately, ours isn’t so creative, but if you check out the whole map, you’ll learn a lot about other states.

And with that, this is our last email/broadcast/blog until September 8th. You might have noticed we have a national holiday coming up and in honor of said day, where we celebrate of all things, labor, we are taking a few days off to to do just that. Be safe and see you next Tuesday.

Stay informed about North Carolina! Get this and other great facts and news about North Carolina in your inbox every weekday by clicking here.

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What You Need to Know About North Carolina for September 2, 2015

We are at day two of September and day 3 of the week. Are we missing anything yet? Maybe some North Carolina news.

(Too busy to read? Catch the audio version here)

NC A&T State University has a new police chief, who was formerly with the Morrisville Police Department.

Some people in the aviation studies program at Guilford Technical Community College will have to repeat some courses, due to a change mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration.

An alligator was found in a creek near a home near Winston-Salem. While the home is close to a reptile reserve, now that reptile reserve is under suspicion by the surrounding neighborhood. The owner of the reserve says the alligator is not his.

Duke Energy has won a halt in court of the shareholder lawsuit brought upon them due to damages they have faced financially since the discovery of coal ash ponds near several of their power generating facilities. The company says it needs more time and money to settle all these matters.

Meanwhile, Stokes County Board of Commissioners will consider a two-year moratorium on fracking in the county at their next board meeting.

Now that AirBnB is legal (save unreported units and unpaid lodging taxes) in Asheville and Buncombe County, the county tax rolls show $1 million in revenue generated by the site in just a month. The jump is attributed to the company reporting all of its sales, not just home renters self-reporting their incomes from rentals on the site.

The Environmental Protection Agency has rejected a clean-up of a Superfund site in Asheville because it didn’t properly account for all of the chemicals that needed to be removed from the site. The company responsible, CTS, will release a new plan to the EPA within the next few weeks.

Lower gas prices, coupled with an increase in fares on Charlotte Area Transit System buses and rail and less buses on many routes contributed to a slight drop in ridership over the past year.

Wilmington’s city manager, city attorney and city clerk are getting raises this year.

A retirement community near the coast only has one entrance and exit, and that’s over a flood-prone bridge. Soon, after settling with a set of property owners, the community will get one more exit.

The Lumbee Tribe Supreme Court has ruled that the current tribal chairman can seek a third term. His first term was as a replacement for another leader and the courts ruled that in lieu of him not getting to serve three years of his first term, he’ll be granted one more full three-year term. The tribal chairman holds all executive powers over the tribe.

And finally, The N.C. House still cannot decide on a budget for teachers assistants and drivers ed classes.

Stay informed about North Carolina! Get this and other great facts and news about North Carolina in your inbox every weekday by clicking here.

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What You Need to Know About North Carolina for September 1, 2015

Hello fine people! I’d like to welcome you to September! It’s still warm, but that’s how we like it in North Carolina, right? Just warm enough to make a Labor Day run to the beach or mountains, to blow off a bit of steam after the first few weeks of school and just before work begins to feel like fall.

I’m also honored to present not just a written version of What You Need to Know About North Carolina, but now an audio one. Click on the orange play button and you’ll get what I just wrote above, plus a modified version of all the news I list below and a few other adjustments since it’s a different medium.

Audio is here!—

https://soundcloud.com/kristen-jeffers/what-you-need-to-know-about-north-carolina-for-september-1

I’ve gone back and forth about doing an audio version, namely because I often do this first thing in the morning (Central time) and I don’t always sound the best. But I know you all are busy, and many of you hear the news while driving, walking or doing something else besides staring at a screen. So here we are, coming to you in a podcast form. For now, we will just be on Soundcloud, but soon you’ll be able to pull up the link in iTunes, Stitcher and many of your other favorite podcast links.

The one thing that won’t change will be that the links will still be right here (and in the description of the audio) so you can go back and read for yourself. With that said, here’s today’s links written out too:

If you’ve been watching the empty lot in Durham near the Jack Tar Motel become a dirt lot, its developers insist that it will become that skyscraper they’ve been promising soon.

The newest indoor play area in the state is in Durham, a venture between two dads and a lot of music to play.

My favorite locally owned startup, Spoonflower, which prints patterns I or others create on our computers  on fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap, has raised more money and is going international.

If you are wondering why local corn doesn’t look so good this year, thank the cold snap and the dry conditions of this past summer.

The Guilford County commissioners have voted to support bringing Say Yes to Education to Guilford County Schools and charter school students. The organization works to provide full scholarships to both two and four year schools, public and private, to all eligible students regardless of need.

After work bids for the facility came in millions over budget, the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation, which operates the regional bus system in the Triad area, has announced a small delay in completion of the facility, as well as changes to the design and scope of the facility.

The Forsyth County Department of Social Services has flooded and is closed for today.

Governor McCrory has distanced himself from an ad for a prayer breakfast and rally at which he’s scheduled to speak. The ad included explicitly Christian language and raised concerns of a separation between church and state.

How AVL, the airport itself, determines flight prices. They also insist that they are working to add flights to the airport.

The Asheville City Schools will charge $50 for drivers ed.

Not only is it becoming more expensive to host or stay at an online based vacation rental in Asheville, but now traditional hotels will have a tax levied against them in both Asheville and Buncombe County.

When people are moving to and from Charlotte, where are they going and where are they coming from? The U.S. Census bureau has released its latest migration findings for the area and found that most people move from New York, South Carolina and Florida to Charlotte and most people move to South Carolina from Charlotte.

Meanwhile, some subsidized apartments were approved to be built in the Charlotte area, but others, including one with its own campaign to be built, were not. And market-rate apartments continue to be built, including a set just announced at the North Carolina Music Factory.

People statewide are finding issues with credit bureaus and reporting more of those issues to the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, along with the usual complaints about their mortgages.

The  website WalletHub just released rankings of community colleges throughout the nation and North Carolina just missed the cut for the top ten, coming in at number 11. The site ranks financial products and services, as well as other major investments such as home purchases, educational purchases and vehicle loans.

Federal researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have began assessing the remains of the Diamond Shoal Lightship No. 71, the only American lightship sunk by the enemy during World War I.

And finally, if you play the state lottery, you can now purchase a BBQ-scented, scratch and sniff ticket.

If you like what you’ve just read or heard, subscribe via email and make sure you get notified when this comes out each weekday. Thanks for reading or listening!

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What You Need to Know About North Carolina for August 31, 2015Happy Monday folks! I hope you had a nice restful weekend. I also hope that you are taking advantage of the many festivals and other outdoor summer things, like warm beaches, while you can. I also hope your back-to-school adventures are also going well. In the meantime, make sure you take in these news stories:

Two transportation plans need your feedback: the Greensboro Metropolitan Transportation Plan, which seeks feedback on projects through 2040 and the Durham-Chapel Hill Light Rail environmental study.

The Greensboro City Council will consider a resolution to endorse in-state tuition for undocumented citizens of the United States at UNC institutions. The Greensboro council will allow citizens to allocate $500,000 of the city budget, becoming the first city in the south to offer such a program. Currently, the council is appointing the steering committee for the budgeting process.

Shelby Stephenson, the state’s newest poet laureate, reflects about his rural upbringing and how it made him a poet in this month’s Our State magazine.

Is Raleigh drinking too much downtown? Concerns about human waste and behavior are growing as new bars sprout all over the area and laws are passed to restrict certain bar activities.

There’s a push to ban door-to-door salespeople in Davidson County, which is just south of Greensboro and High Point and home to Lexington and its renowned barbecue festival.

The 2011 electoral maps, which were drawn by mostly Republican state legislators and have resulted in GOP wins at both the state and federal level, are back under the review of the courts. The initial voting rights case filed back in 2011 when the maps were released and approved by the General Assembly, was never resolved and now that there’s a new precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court on voting rights, several parties to the case want to re-examine it.

Winston-Salem’s open-air Liberty Street Market could close, as the recent operator under contract from the city has pulled out.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is asking that people don’t tag graffiti in the parkland.

Meanwhile, more international tourists are visiting the mountain areas, and the state as a whole.

If you start to see a particular Appalachian Trail game out a lot more, know that it came from Asheville.

Belk is often a lifeline and one of the few fancier department stores (and employers) in many small towns, especially in Eastern North Carolina. Many express their concerns that will change now that the store is no longer family-owned.

The Levine Museum of the New South has named a new public historian, who is set to make history of her own.

Infrastructure improvements to Wilmington’s Water Street are set to begin soon.

And finally, the beloved canine mascot of the Greensboro Grasshoppers minor league baseball team, Ms. Babe Ruth, has retired.

Stay informed about North Carolina! Get this and other great facts and news about North Carolina in your inbox every weekday by clicking here.

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What You Need to Know About North Carolina for August 28, 2015

It’s Friday, let’s go straight to the news:

Carowinds is revamping its water park.

Guilford County’s driver’s ed program is backlogged, but is set to start enrolling new students in October.

Also working to reduce a backlog, Forsyth County’s Social Services Program.

Ridesharing is now completely legal and the governor is expected to sign the bill approving them fully.

The General Assembly has also approved its next stop-gap budget measure.

A group is calling for the City of Asheville to fix dangerous Asheville sidewalks. Meanwhile Raleigh is seeking, finding and fixing broken pipes.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police have pledged to train officers to treat citizens better in the wake of the Kerrick trial, which ended in a mistrial.

The Charlotte mayoral candidates express their opinions on the I-77 toll roads at a recent mayoral forum.

What this one man did that changed a neighborhood for the worst in Wilson.

And finally, concerns over loss of diversity in Wake County Schools.

Stay informed about North Carolina! Get this and other great facts and news about North Carolina in your inbox every weekday by clicking here.

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What You Need to Know About North Carolina for August 27, 2015

I hope your week is rolling along just as well as mine is. Even as we are daily shown many tragedies and sorrows, on the other side of that coin, there’s always good news to share too. Dwell on that as you read the mixture of the two below, from throughout the state of North Carolina:

There’s been progress on the state budget, but not enough to for one to be in affect by Monday, when the latest stopgap measure expires.

Meanwhile, the Senate’s delay on an economic development bill has airlines and data centers anxiously waiting to see if they can get extra money to do business in the state.

The Greensboro City Council’s new committee structure, modeled on the one in effect in Winston-Salem, will start at next week.

Several new leaders in economic development and education in Guilford County presented themselves to the community at yesterday’s State of the Community luncheon, presented by the Greensboro Partnership, the lead economic development organization.

Two western North Carolina counties are tied for the highest rates of DWI convictions in the state.

What’s next for two Charlotte institutions: its police department in the wake of the Kerrick case and a new police chief and Belk, with its sale to from its Charlotte-based family founders to a private equity firm.

Charlotte’s zoning code and process is set for major changes.

Renovations to Charlotte’s Bojangles Coliseum have been full of surprises, good surprises like old photos and ticket booths. The renovations should be complete in time for the Charlotte Checkers, the area’s minor league hockey team, to take the ice.

A lawsuit against Fayetteville’s mayor will be moved to another county.

How the revamped red-light-camera ticket program in Fayetteville is doing.

In Wilson, the city council has approved a solar energy policy and some of its city offices have moved to a historic home.

More controversy around a neighborhood planning process in Raleigh that would displace several residents in the name of bringing in mixed-income housing.

Also upset at a potential rezoning in Raleigh: food truck operators.

Yes! Weekly asks, does Greensboro art?

And finally, when parking meters showed up on North Carolina streets.

Stay informed about North Carolina! Get this and other great facts and news about North Carolina in your inbox every weekday by clicking here.

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What You Need to Know About North Carolina for August 26, 2015

I’ve included links to back-to-school articles over the past week, but I’m going to pause today and wish everyone a happy return, if you are returning. Also, to the parents sending kids back, a word of comfort. To the teachers, a word of encouragement. And to the greater community, let’s do all we can to support the vital notion of education, no matter what form it comes in. You can start by checking out today’s set of news.

The Governor is expected to make a job announcement and everything else that’s going on at the General Assembly today. And a video of what they did yesterday. Also, in the past few weeks, the General Assembly has added more requirements to the unemployment process.

The state’s first virtual charter schools have opened.

The Greensboro City Council redistricting lawsuit is back.

Again, fewer people want to teach public school in North Carolina. That article also highlights that we are 42nd in teacher pay in the nation. However, new teachers are getting raises.

The fine for having an AirBnB listing or any other short-term rental under 30 days, outside of downtown Asheville or any other commercial district in the city, is now $500.

The state Utilities Commission will hold a public forum with Duke Energy on September 3rd in Henderson County over utility line placement.

More people than expected are riding the Charlotte streetcar.

You can now major in beer at many colleges throughout the state.

Charlotteans react to the sale of Belk.

The state auditors office could begin investigating the financial aid office at UNC-Wilmington.

The town of Belville down east is closer to getting a new town hall.

And finally, the City of Raleigh has released a report on biking in the city.

Stay informed about North Carolina! Get this and other great facts and news about North Carolina in your inbox every weekday by clicking here.

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What You Need to Know About North Carolina for August 25, 2015

Tuesday. Day Two of the workweek. Day two of news from me this week:

Hey, we should be excited that this show is set in Durham, even if it’s not filmed there, right?

Belk has been sold to a private equity firm. So far, other than one family member leaving the company, they’ve promised no changes. Meanwhile, Greensboro’s Renaissance Community Co-Op has a general manager now, but is still short of the funds it needs to open. They are still planning for a soft-opening in April of next year though.

The largest number of people commute each day between these two North Carolina counties. Having done this commute before (although its been several years) I think this should surprise no one.

Several people showed up to a forum in Winston-Salem last night to push to save a set of apartments that rent at under the market-rate.

A state court is set to issue a ruling in a Map Act case involving several landowners in the path of a proposed beltway in Winston-Salem. The Map Act, a state law, requires a three-year moratorium on building permits on lands designated by the state as areas for potential eminent domain. The issue in this case is that these lands have been on maps for longer than three years, have not been built on by the state except for one case and don’t allow landowners to sell at market-value if they no longer want the land.

The  Asheville Citizen-Times asks if the state should regulate health care options.

A new Asheville busker law has been halted, after several frequent buskers have noted issues with the law.

In the Buncombe County Commissioner race, a man who would be the first Black man elected to the body, ever and a known food and housing justice advocate.

Still no state budget, and the General Assembly wants even more time with it.

The Halifax county commissioners have been sued by parents and others who allege the school districts that have been drawn are discriminatory.  Meanwhile, hundreds attended a forum in Charlotte on a similar issue with its school districts.

According to Duke Energy, the recent findings of contaminated groundwater around its operations are not reaching wells of homeowners.

A member of the Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Organization wants the state to change the name of a proposed highway bypass, because he feels the name is keeping the highway from getting the support it needs to get built.

The Fayetteville City Council has delayed a decision on a proposed homeless shelter.

Hyde County officials are closer to getting a industrial site developed, if they could only remove the abandoned boats sitting on it.

The Governor has thanked teachers for their service, as many received students back in their classrooms yesterday.

And finally, the draft environmental impact statement, which details where rail infrastructure will actually go, among other things, for the Durham-Chapel Hill light rail line, is now complete.

Stay informed about North Carolina! Get this and other great facts and news about North Carolina in your inbox every weekday by clicking here.

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